Industrial Gothic

The Gothic is more than just maidens-in-peril fleeing supernatural villains in another age. Historically, it was a form used to depict and critique the dangerous labour conditions faced by workers during the Industrial Revolution.

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This study carves out a new area of study, the 'industrial Gothic', placing the literature of the Industrial Revolution in dialogue with the Gothic. It explores a significant subset of transatlantic nineteenth-century literature that employs the tropes, themes and rhetoric of the Gothic to portray the real-life horrors of factory life, framing the Industrial Revolution as a site of Gothic excess and horror. Using archival materials from the nineteenth century, localised incidences of Gothic industrialisation (in specific cities like Lowell and Manchester) are considered alongside transnational connections and comparisons. The book argues that stories about the real horrors of factory life frequently employed the mode of the Gothic, while nineteenth century Gothic writing (stories, novels, poems and stage adaptations) began to use new settings - factories, mills, and industrial cities - as backdrops for the horrors that once populated Gothic castles.